Mark and Elizabeth are 15 months old today!!! I think I skipped updating at 13 and 14 months so we have a lot to catch up on today! We don't go to the Dr. until next week so I don't have any stats but I'm guessing they are both just barely over 20 pounds, we'll see if I'm right! This is going to be super long!
I decided that today was going to be the day that I try to transition them off bottles for the morning/pre nap feeding. I forgot to take a couple things into consideration though...1) Over the past week we have finally gotten them off of a middle of the night bottle! I know, some of you may be shocked at this but we have been giving them a few ounces when they wake up crying. Well Little Mark would actually scream bloody murder and Elizabeth would cry for 2 hours until we gave her one. In order for my pregnant self to get any sleep I would cave in and keep promising myself that the next week I would do better. They finally decided on their own to just not get up anymore, thank you babies! I should note that Elizabeth is having a harder time with this than Mark, but she will kick it for good really soon. 2) We just barely got Elizabeth to full milk feedings yesterday, no more formula for her!!!! Which means her tummy is in transition period for a few more days. Mark is at 75% and having a harder time adjusting, we have to go really slow with him because he throws up a lot for the first few days or so until he adjusts. So with both of those things to consider I don't know how smart it is to add in a 3rd change to their lives but I'm too excited at the prospect of washing less bottles every night!
Overall they have never cared for drinking anything out of sippy cups. I offer them at every meal and when they wake up from naps and several other times and I can barely get them to drink much at all, no matter what kind of sippy cup I try. There has been a slight improvement over the past week or so though. At my 1st attempt this morning I put their milk in there and Mark did well drinking 2 out of 8 oz but Elizabeth refused! She even said no for the 1st time! And she did it in her deep, serious voice too! Breaking her of a bottle is going to be tough!!
MARK:
Our little outdoor lover!! You favorite thing is to be outside playing with rocks or just roaming free to explore the great outdoors. You want to touch everything you see, luckily you have outgrown putting everything in your mouth, but you still do on occasion. Instead you usually bring the trash to me or spit it out and then give it to me! You also love to wrestle and play with Elizabeth. You both love it when she's the one getting you, you laugh really easily and are still very ticklish. You love to be thrown around, chased and to dance. You are a hard core music lover and will dance to anything, even the hymns during church!
Lately you love to follow me around really closely. After tripping over you, knocking you over or stepping on your feet a few times I now make sure to look down every time I stop and then start walking. You love to sit or stand at my feet (or Daddy's) when we're in the kitchen! Your curiosity makes you appear outgoing but over the past month or so we've noticed that you get a very cute shy smile and try to hide your face when someone is really talking or paying attention to you, and by someone I mean a cute girl! At church on Sunday you were really acting shy to the girl sitting next to me (whose name just happens to be Emily too)! It is just about the cutest thing ever!! You are also showing signs of being a bit stubborn. For example, if I make a bottle for you and try handing it to you to go and drink by yourself you get SUPER mad!! You will run off to a corner or your bedroom and cry and scream. Sometimes you try to go all Hulk and push the crib out of the way so that you can get behind it or one time you tried to do pull ups on the high chair! When I get to you with your bottle and blanket you will refuse to come to me, you will refuse to come get it if it's sitting right in front of you too. Instead I have to come and pick you up, then we can get on with it! You also get very fixated on certain toys or walking a certain direction and you will do anything to get what you want! Last night in the tub you pinned Elizabeth's arm behind her back so that you could play with the music toy! Most of the time it makes me laugh and just blame your Daddy, he said he was stubborn too!
You have an awesome appetite for food! You will try anything we put in front of you and you usually end up liking it. You eat really fast and put a ton of food in your mouth at once. It used to freak me out but your Daddy kept reassuring me that it was just how you boys roll..he was right! You can handle a lot of food and if you can't you just spit it out, you've never choked on food, just liquids that you drink too fast! I'm not even sure you have a favorite food right now, you just seem to eat everything! Even though it has been a bit challenging for you to transition to whole milk you seem to like it more and are definitely drinking more milk than you did formula, plus we've noticed that it's adding a tiny bit more fat to your small frame!
You love your blanket, you love story time, especially at night with Daddy. You love your Daddy like crazy and now you can run instead of walk to the door when he comes home. Monday mornings are notoriously rough for you because you miss your Daddy so much! You love to talk and talk although you don't have many words yet. If I start a 'conversation' with you, you will go on for days, literally! It's one of my favorite things you do, you point and talk and sometimes laugh when we have our little chats! I have noticed this week though that you aren't always talking to me, in fact you talk to Elizabeth a lot. Just this morning you were talking and looking outside, I was listening but then I noticed Elizabeth listening too and then she started pointing outside as you were talking. I think she was trying to tell me that you were talking about something out there...she may become your interpreter for a while until you can figure things out! Or you may take off and start saying words really soon, who knows! You can sign more, all done, wave, blow kisses, point to your hair, nose, mouth, belly button and toes. You can make a horse, bumblebee, pig and cow sound. You play peek a boo with both hands covering your eyes now. You can say the first sound of a word like shoe is shhhh and carrot (or any c,k word) is ka. You are great at retrieving things like books, bottles, balls, shoes, jackets, cups, blankets, diapers, wipes and more that I can't think of right now. It's actually quite surprising to me how many words and objects you understand, you seemed to just start doing it out of nowhere!
You are a very sweet boy who is quite obedient most of the time. You listen well and have a strong desire to please us. You still love to cuddle in with me and your blanket and bottle and watch me sing to you or poke at my face as I sing to you...your favorite song right now is Paper Moon by Frank Sinatra (is that right Grandma T?). But you like almost anything we sing to you. You sleep in all positions but mostly on your tummy with your bum in the air and your feet crossed at the ankles, it's my favorite! You haven't quite transitioned to one nap, you still prefer a good 2 hour nap and then a 1 hour nap later in the day. Thank you for being so sweet, smart and funny. We love you to pieces buddy!!!
ELIZABETH:
Our little happy, happy girl!! You are a such a sweet, happy baby almost all the time. I say almost because sometimes you need a minute after waking up, but not always, to get ready to go and play. You love playing with toys, books, going outside for walks, watching other kids, playing with the neighbors dog, getting chased and thrown around by me and Daddy and wrestling and tackling Mark! You have a pretty long attention span and will sit and play with certain things, especially new things, for quite a long time. You LOVE bath time!!!! You and Mark sit in there and splash as hard as you can and only take breaks to wipe your eyes, otherwise you are laughing like crazy and getting Daddy soaked!
You are really into copying things and it has helped you learn some new words and games like patty cake and Grandma T's sneezing game where you put something on your head and then go ah, ah, ah, choo...although you never do the choo part, you just say ah, ah, ah over and over! You can also do twinkle twinkle little star. You will repeat and say mama and dada and a few times now Grandma. You will say hi in the cutest way, just this morning when I went to get you out of your crib you kept saying hi, it's one of my favorite things! And apparently as of this morning you can say no! You can and love to sign more, all done, wave, blow kisses, point to your hair, nose, mouth, belly button and toes. You can retrieve tons of things, especially books, your blanket, bottle or cup, shoes, jackets, socks, diapers, wipes, food, balls, and a ton of other things! Your capacity to understand words and objects is impressive to me! You will start out saying the 1st sound of a word too, like p for pants, sss for socks or shhh for shoes.
You are a slow and very picky eater! You love cheese of any kind (dairy in general) and fruit. Anything outside of those 2 food groups is a gamble. You will pick at your food and eat it so slowly, if I give you grated cheddar cheese you will pick up one piece at a time and eat it! If I give you toast you will pick one tiny piece off at a time, you are in your high chair for a long time every meal! The only thing you are fast at doing is drinking your bottle, you can chug that milk more than twice as fast as Mark!!
Most of the time you prefer me and you have the sweetest little smile...it's hard to explain it because you don't give it very often, just sometimes when I look at you, you'll smile with your mouth closed and your head tilted and it just melts me!! Most of the time though you smile nice and big, which is almost all day long! You have a real connection with Grandma T, she is the only person besides me and Daddy that you go to right away, even after not seeing her in person for months! When she was visiting there were times when you even wanted her over me! I suppose we made the right choice in naming you after her, you two are best buds! You are usually pretty shy and reserved and take some time to warm up to people. People are a bit obsessed over touching your curly hair and you are usually pretty good about letting them do it!
You are usually pretty easy going and when you and Mark want the same toy you will just give a little cry and tilt your head back like you're about to throw a major fit but never do...at least not yet! You love to cuddle and be tickled and you have a deep funny laugh that always makes us laugh! At night when it is time for bed we let you and Mark give each other kisses and hugs and as soon as you get close to each other you both lay your heads down and start laughing and poking each other! It's so cute! You usually sleep on your tummy or side, you never sleep on your back unless you are really, really tired! Lately you won't leave your crib without your blanket. Thank you for being so good and sweet and for always making me smile, we love you to pieces baby girl!!!!
